The week in which they'd have to 'plan' what they would do in their trip was flashing by, and before everyone knew it, they only had a day to prepare for the transport to get to the muggle-born's house. Obviously all of them would take the Hogwarts Express to get to Kings Cross, but once they got there, they were on their own.
"So, the day after tomorrow, we're leaving to go to my house." Hermione said, setting her bag down to where they'd both come to make their meeting spot, the tree on the grass near the Owlery. Draco looked up at her from where he was lying on the grass.
"What of it?" He said in a bored tone. Hermione closed her eyes irritably.
"First there's how we're going to get there. We're getting the *tube."
"Tube?" Draco said incredulously, and then snorted. "What in hell is that?" Hermione sighed, and looked down at Draco.
"It's like a train, but it goes underground. Hence the name 'Tube'," Hermione replied, and sat, and looked Draco up and down. He threw a look at her. She glared. "And then there are your clothes."
"What's wrong with my clothes?" Draco retorted, looking down at himself.
"They don't look like muggle clothes! So as soon as we put our bags down at home, we're buying you some clothes to blend in." Hermione snapped. Draco raised an eyebrow.
"And where do you suppose you'll get all this money from?" Draco asked coolly.
"My parents have good jobs, you know." Hermione shrugged. "My mum's put aside some money for me in the bank. I'm on a budget though." Draco nodded reluctantly. Hermione looked at him. "You do realise you're going to have to help me with keeping the house tidy and such? As in chores." She smiled at the last sentence. Draco scrambled back from her on his backside, holding up his hands.
"Oh no," he protested, "I am not besmirching these perfect hands with muggle housework." Hermione glared at him, reached over and slapped one of his hands. The mark smarted, and Hermione smirked.
"Not so perfect now, are they?" Hermione drawled, cocking her head. Draco glared at her, reached over and pushed her shoulder hard, so that she nearly toppled over. She sat up, rubbed her shoulder and leaned forward to punch him hard enough to leave a black eye. He easily caught her hand, and smirked while he pushed it away, while Hermione was still trying to push it forward. She threw a dark look at his smirking face and threw forward another fist to punch. Yet again he caught it, and the 'fight' quickly turned into wrestling. For Draco it was just play, but Hermione wanted to claw Draco's eyes out. Hermione interlinked her fingers with Draco's for more grip and attempted to push herself forward. Draco stayed exactly where he was and smiled demurely at Hermione, keeping her at arm's length with ease. He looked at her growling face and decided to give her more slack as a reward for her effort. He relaxed his arms so that Hermione came to the point where her fists were nearly touching his chest, although she knew she wasn't getting any stronger, it just made her more angry that he pitied her enough to let her forward. Draco leaned forward to Hermione's ear.
"We're serious opposites, aren't we?" He said, his voice vibrating into her ear. She nearly stopped out of discomfort. "I'm strong, and you're weak." He finished, smirking. Well, that did it. He pulled back when he felt a tightening on his hands, to see Hermione eyes flashing brightly. He looked at her with wide eyes, before Hermione's anger was finally added to her strength, and she surged forward, pushing Draco backwards onto the grass. What she didn't expect was for her to go toppling over him too.
"Hah! Whose stronger n..." Hermione said triumphantly, and then trailed off to see Draco beneath her. She looked down to see his him. His face wasn't smirking, or holding any sort of snide expression, but his eyes were holding hers in a calculating stare. After a few moments, she untangled her hands from his and slid off of him before throwing him a look.
"You bloody pervert! What was that for?" She said dramatically, throwing her hands up.
"Excuse me?" Draco said disbelievingly. "You were the one who fell onto me!" Hermione looked at him with disgust.
"Well you were the one who pushed my shoulder!" Hermione retorted.
"You smacked my hand though!" Draco yelled back. Hermione opened her mouth, and then closed it, glaring at Draco. He crossed his arms smugly, his eyes glinting at Hermione.
"Whatever!" She said, and then stood up, brushing herself off. "I'm going. Bye." She walked away, before Draco called back to her.
"Don't trip and fall onto anyone else, okay?" He yelled.
"Shut up!" Hermione's voice called back. He watched her go with a smirk.
On the way back to her dormitory, Hermione saw Ginny and waved to her grinning.
"Hey! Back from meeting Draco I suppose?" Ginny asked, walking over. Hermione looked at her with her eyes narrowed.
"Yeah... And since when did you call Malfoy 'Draco'?" Hermione asked suspiciously. Ginny looked at her shaking her head.
"Everyone does. You do realise only you, Harry and Ron are the only ones who still hold a grudge against him?" She replied. Hermione shrugged, and nearly snickered when she remembered the smarting mark on his hand from where she slapped it.
"I think Harry and Ron do it more out of habit now." She said, and they walked into the castle. Hermione noticed Ginny didn't broach the subject any further.
~.~.~.~.~.~
"Ugh! Why do I have to sit here and be stuck with you all journey!" Draco said miserably, kicking the seat in front of him. Hermione glared at him from the opposite seat. The teachers had already suspected that none of the pairs had actually done any planning, and thought it was better than nothing to do a bit of cramming in the little time they had left of their preparation.
"You think I like this any more than you do?" Hermione snapped. Draco's eyes moved to hers and he grinned.
"You know, there is another way to kill time..." He trailed off suggestively. He laughed at Hermione's screwed up face.
"You are absolutely disgusting." She muttered, and swung a foot up to kick his leg.
"Hey!" Draco retorted. "I don't want another bloody wrestle you know." Hermione rolled her eyes, and he looked at her with another unreadable stare. "Can we at least try and make civil conversation?" Hermione looked up.
"Why now? And why are you of all people saying that anyway?" She said, with an eyebrow raised. She crossed her arms, and Draco shrugged.
"Well, this is the whole idea behind the teachers pairing us together, right? You and I are the only people that still hate each other." He said to her. Hermione looked down.
"I guess." She replied quietly. Draco looked at her dipped head from his opposite seat and tilted his head. They both sat in silence for nearly five minutes before Draco piped up.
"Hey Granger." He said, and received no reply. "Granger. Hey, don't ignore me!" He looked back at her irritably. "I'm boooored. Granger, Granger, Granger." He made fists with his hands. "Granger!" He said loudly, and looked over to her to see her chest rising and falling steadily, her eyes closed. "You're asleep..?" He waited for her to jump up and try to scare him, but nothing came. He poked her leg with his foot, and still no loud, angry retort came. At last, he went over to her and checked she wasn't fake-sleeping. Nope, nothing. He leaned in to check her face. She looks a lot more peaceful asleep. There was no annoyed or irritated expression on her face, and Draco decided that she looked a lot better when she was sleeping. Her lips parted slightly as she exhaled. Stray strands of her hair fell onto her nose, and she wrinkled it subconsciously. Draco unthinkingly smoothed the hair away with his hand, tucking it behind her ear. He quickly took his hand away when he realised what he was doing and looked back at Hermione. Draco slumped back into his seat, running a hand through his hair. In just a few hours, he'd be in the Muggle world, staying at Hermione Granger's house. He'd be stuck there for three whole weeks, with Hermione as his only... Draco's brow furrowed.
As my only... Friend?
A/N: Hello! Are you enjoying this? I'm really trying my hardest to slow down the progression and put it more into Hermione's house, but I can't resist doing these little moments. Albeit one-sided, haha. Sorry for the short chapters!
*Tube = If there are any U.S readers here (I'm not sure?) the Tube is the same as... I think it's either the Subway or the Metro. I'm not really sure, haha.